40 Day Contemplative Lenten Challenge - Ash Wednesday

There are no neutral decisions in the spiritual life, for every decision one makes is either for God or against God.

After having made a choice to believe in Jesus Christ, we begin a grace-filled spiritual journey our early Christian brothers and sisters called “The Way.” It was called this because our spiritual journey, when embraced whole-heartedly, begins a life-long journey back to God. That journey involves three stages or phases commonly referred to as the Purgative stage; Illuminative stage; and the Unitive stage of the spiritual journey. The Purgative stage, once begun, is a process that takes on a life-long character and becomes a permanent aspect of one’s spiritual life. Purgation’s goal is to get rid of those things in one’s life that are not of God. The spiritual life is lived on a daily basis and bears either good fruit or bad fruit as each of us makes our daily decisions. We progress spiritually based on our openness to God’s grace, and it is through our prayer life that the transformative nature of God’s grace changes us or transfigures us so that we can put on the mind of Christ more fully by how we live our lives. Every one of us is in the midst of an interior battle with one’s sinfulness, our attachments to temporal comforts and things, and our need to control, be recognized for accomplishments, and to be successful in the temporal world. Lent is a time to make a bit of a heightened effort through fasting and prayer to strengthen us against our sinful tendencies and our attachments to comfort and things.

Lenten Action Today, if you are a regular practitioner of contemplative prayer or spending time in praying in the silence of your heart, pray before you start that God will come to you in a special way during Lent and give you the grace to improve your prayer life.

If you are new to spending time in silent prayer, find a comfortable place where you can sit in silence. When you have gotten into a comfortable sitting position, say a brief prayer telling God you want to be with Him and asking Him to help you silence your thoughts. Then direct the focus of your attention on your breathing. Feel the rising and falling of your chest and what it feels like as you fill your lungs and expel your breath. Rest in the rhythm of your breathing. When random thoughts intrude, notice them and then let them go and return to focusing your attention of the rhythm of your breathing. At first you may only be able to spend 5 minutes in silent prayer like this. Don’t be upset if you don’t actually get to a place where your mind is silent. This is natural because your mind is made to think. And please do not measure your success at this form of prayer by how much silence you experience. Worldly measures here have no real value. Also do not attempt to drive your thoughts away. This will only disturb your ability to sit in silence. Simply notice them and let them go.

Today is a Fast day if you are physically able. Everyone should abstain from eating meat and limit the amount of food one eats. Remember not to watch TV, use computers or your phones to access computer games or unnecessary apps. Please avoid using social media.